


Of all possible worlds

by Keenir



Series: Possible Worlds [1]
Category: Norse Mythology, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Thor Movies, Dark Thor, Gen, Jotunns have a history, Jötunn Loki, Jötunn Thor, King Loki, King Thor, Really its their A Thousand And One Nights, Sif is an assassin, Thor Is Not Stupid, and the Thor movies, another way to keep them from that fight on Jotunheim, oh hi Fury, the War wasn't so long ago for either side, there may be Loki/Sif later, vanir
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-22
Updated: 2013-08-04
Packaged: 2017-12-21 00:21:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/893619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Norn convinces Sif to change her mind.  Then she explains what she saw that changed her mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Coronation & what Sif says

**Author's Note:**

> _In Asgard, everything is personal. This is probably because even when you're several centuries old, you can still look forwards to at least a few millenia, assuming you don't die in battle. So it becomes a lot easier to equate, say, the kingdom with the king, or the future king. The same reason public opinion changes slowly, when it changes at all; the Jotun just happen to have been the last people Asgard went to war with. Because I've found some pretty horrifying things in about the Vanir in the Asgard library's historical documents section._ \--Jane F. Midgardsdottir, daughter of Jane Foster of Earth; 2412 AD.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two coronations and a banishment.

**Reality 1**

Loki had just accepted the - the spear, the scepter; Odin called it by its name, and everyone else called it by a different noun - when something occurred before anyone could react to his taking a seat in the throne: All were knocked to the floor, even Loki from his new throne.

It only lasted a moment, and as everyone pushed themselves back to their feet, they all saw the same thing walking away from them: A shambling pile of old and discarded clothes thrown aside in war and in peace, with hands a hodgepodge of all the Nine Worlds' inhabitants, and a pair of glowing eyes looking out from the infinite darkness of the hood. _**A Norn.**_

In time, the pressure lifted, easing off of everyone.

When everyone was standing once more, Sif was the first to kneel before a now-standing Loki. Having done that, she ascended the stairs and took up a guardian position to one side.

"Sif!, your hand," Volstagg pointed out.

She looked at it, and saw something unmistakable, something that nothing in the Nine Worlds or beyond could fake or mimic: _A nornmark. Tales say it will fade in a few days time, but until then...anyone who sees it, will know a Norn left something with me._

"What did it want?" some asked her. "What did the Norn tell you?" others asked.

Sif cleared her throat, as much to silence their noise as to settle her own thoughts. _The Norn dropped everything into my mind all at once, and the things are only now coming into something of an order._ "They showed me that Loki is the best king Asgard can have at this point in time."

"What of Thor?" asked someone in the back. Loki paused in sitting back down, to look out for the person who had said that.

"The Norn gave me a story to tell," Sif said. _And I hate stories. Telling them means you aren't out living one._ "It concerns Thor." _Mostly. Some things, like Thor's tale, were a result of a changed past. Others, a few, felt they had not yet happened, or had not happened yet after whatever changed past had wrought them to be possible._ She looked up at Loki. _My king, now. And, Odin forgive me, better than Thor would have been._

"Whenever you are ready," Loki said reassuringly to her. "It need not even be today."

"I..." and Sif looked at her friends the Warriors Three. They needed to hear this. _Well, most of it._

Taking a steadying breath, she began. "It happened in this way..."

  


* * *

**Reality 2**  
Sif stood watching in the Bifrost Observatory as Odin began to tear the plates from Thor's armor.  
 **~~~**

"No!" Loki shouted.

Odin stopped.

Stepping up to them, Loki said, "Banish me in Thor's stead."

Allfather Odin hesitated before asking, "You are certain of this?"

"If he is to rule, then it makes no sense to banish him immediately after declaring him such."

"No, brother, this is not -" Thor began to say.

"Your power is weakened, Loki," Odin said, taking a few pieces from his armor. "But it is not gone completely, for your sacrifice is recognized." Summoning the Hammer to his hand, Odin whispered into it "He who possesses this Hammer, if they be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor," and hurled it into the passage _**away**_. "Live well, Loki. One day, your banishment will end."

Loki nodded, and thought, just before passing **_away_** as well, _Perhaps this will be sufficient time to come to understand what happened to my arm, this afternoon on Jotunheim. If Thor is banished, I will be distracted (and here) by this for Mirmir knows how long._

Dropping down, "He should not have taken my place," Thor said, kneeling at the feet of Odin.

"True. And yet he did. He demonstrated a greater capacity for service than you."

 _Perhaps you made a mistake in who you declared your successor, father,_ Thor could only think.

  


* * *

**Reality 3**  
Sif was in the same place she had been when Odin Allfather, the picture of perfect health, had announced that Thor would be his successor.  
 **~~~**

Odin began to say something else, but instead collapsed where he was on the royal stairs.

Frigga, Thor, Sif, Loki, the Warriors Three all rushed to his aid.

"The Frost Giants," Odin managed. And then, painfully long seconds later, "The Armory," and his eyes closed.

"His pulse remains," Frigga said, soothing the crowd and those nearer, with those three words.

Thor rose, his Hammer almost singing with anticipation. "Let us see to those Frost Giants," Thor said.

"Rather, see to their remains," Loki pointed out.

"Meh, the Destroyer is too slow, some may have avoided it. Come!"

**~**

"No, I would say none managed to avoid it," Loki said as they looked around the Armory. Everything was in its place. And some bits and bobs and limbs of Jotunns lay scattered in the room.

"They invaded Asgard," Thor said. "Mount up. We ride for - No."

"No?" Sif asked.

"No, as in we aren't going to ride into Jotunheim and demand payback?" Volstagg asked.

Fandral looked at Volstagg, but didn't get the chance to say what was on the tip of his tongue.

"We will be demanding payback," Thor said. "They did this."

"Yes, that's in no doubt," Fandral said.

"My father's collapse is tied to this. _Laufey_ will pay," and Thor stormed up the stairs and out of the Armory.

Once he was gone, Fandral was not the only one who repeated "Laufey?"

**~**

King Laufey of the Jotunns arrived in Asgard flanked by two slightly shorter Jotunns, both doing something surprising to the Asgardians: wearing clothes.

When the three Jotunns were brought before Thor, Laufey said "My congratulations on your accession, Thor. No doubt you feel yourself ready for what that throne brings."

 _It does not matter_ if _I am ready. I was appointed to take the throne._ "I am," Thor said. "Who are these?" looking at the clothed Jotunns.

"Has it been so long for Asgard?" Laufey asked, traces of amusement. "These are scholars. Learned individuals of my World."

"Magicians," Thor dismissed.

"No. Your father saw to that."

 _Speaking thereof,_ "As you were answering me, you have not had a chance to do so, yet - you may take a knee."

"The agreement does not include that."

"I was not party to the agreement."

"True. And yet you depend upon it for your safety with me so close to you."

"You threaten me? You _dare_ threaten me in my own home?"

Laufey wasn't concerned. "Calm yourself, boy. I say what is. I also see grief clouding your judgement; that is why I shall allow you a grace before you form your own agreement with me."

Thor settled himself, using that remark to focus. "Why should I agree with an invader?" Thor asked.

"I have not moved against Asgard in a thousand years. Who brought you the claim that I invaded them?" Laufey asked.

"I do," Thor said.

"A heady claim for so new a crown."

"And I can prove it."

"Then do."

"Several Jotunns broke into the Armory of Asgard earlier today," Thor said.

This failed to impress Laufey. "Has your Destroyer stopped working?"

"No."

"Then what complaint do you bring?"

"Invasion," Thor said.

"And where are they now?" Laufey inquired.

Thor gave a small gesture with his hand, and a guard came over and emptied a bag in front of Laufey. All the parts that had survived the Destroyer, now lay on the floor between Thor and Laufey.

"And you think me responsible? I am flattered, young king."

"Are you suggesting there is another Jotunn lord in Jotunheim capable of sending out raiding parties?" Thor asked of him.

"There is no Jotunn lord in Jotunheim capable of sending raiding parties. Another of your father's accomplishments."

"My father won the War."

"So he did," Laufey said in studied neutrality. "What is your complaint?"

"If not you or another Jotunn lord, then who sent these Jotunns into the Armory of Asgard?" Thor wanted to know.

"Are you asking me to find out for you, little man? Should I rule for you as well?"

Thor's hand hung over the armrest of the throne, a hand that opened. His Hammer flew from the throneside floor to Thor's hand. "Do not test me, Laufey."

"What did you imagine kingship to be?"

"If you are not of a mood to answer my questions, then begone from my presence."

"Granted. Though I have answered every question you put to me. And you have revealed even more to me."

Thor glared down at the red-eyed lord. "I will have you pay for the offense."

Laufey considered.

Thor waited, fingers itching on his Hammer.

"Should I accept the credit for this breach, young king, and pay the weyrgeld for the offense; would that steady your nerves and drop the matter?"

He was about to say yes to that, but then Thor caught on to what Laufey was doing. _If he is somehow innocent of this, then his taking the credit would increase Laufey's name and renown. Should I refuse, however, and tell him to hunt down the guilty Jotunns before I do - if he is indeed guilty, then..._ "You may go, Laufey, while I consider your offer," Thor said. "This matter is not closed, however; know that and know it well."

"Of course," Laufey said, and walked away, the two Jotunn scholars keeping close - 

_As if they fear us, which they are right to,_ Thor mused.

"Thor - King Thor," Fandral asked, "what was - I mean, is that it?"

Thor smiled. "Not at all, my friends," looking from Fandral to Sif to Hogun to Volstagg to Loki. "We will escort them to the Bifrost Observatory, and once they have gone, I will speak with Heimdall."

"I will get the horses," Hogun volunteered.

 _Talking with Heimdall. Nothing dangerous about that,_ Sif thought. But there was still something about Thor's contemplative look that made her uneasy.

  


* * *

**Reality 1**

Sif's body weaved, just a tiny bit, noticeable only to those who knew her. Righting herself, she knew she couldn't excuse herself for a drink - there was always a drink at hand for those engaged in the telling and recounting of adventures, and this was no different - so, "My king, might I adjourn for the night?" but refused to say that she was more exhausted than she had thought she would be - that would be an admission that she couldn't cut it like the male warriors, so she knew it would be interpreted by those critics she had always feared.

"We are all weary from the day," Loki said. To the assembled, "If there are no other matters you wish brought before me today...?" And when there came no answer, "Then I thank you for your time," Loki said, and rose from his throne as the assembled all went their separate ways.

Until it was only Loki, the Warriors Three, and Sif remaining in the room. "I'm fine," Sif told them before any of them could ask.

"We had no doubt," Volstagg said. "But we should still get some food into you and the rest of us."

"The food has not been brought to the tables," Hogun observed.

"There's always the kitchens," Loki said.

"Raid the kitchens? What are we, stripling youths again?" Fandral joked.

"No. But I suspect none would stop the king and his friends, were they to show up in the kitchens," said Loki with a grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot bunny for this actually came from the recent The Lone Ranger movie, starring Ruth Wilson (who starred with Idris Elba in Luther, who starred with our friends in Thor)...as highlighted by the Captain, a nice parallel to Loki - or to Dark Thor in this fic - his initial action may have been well-intentioned if mistaken, but each successive action taken after that (and particularly after learning the true nature of that initial action) only serves to dig him in deeper, and make it that much harder to stop his descent or earn forgiveneness.


	2. What Sif held to herself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are two reasons why Sif is keeping this one from reaching anyone's ears, and regicide is only one reason.  
> (Loki/Sif)

**Reality 1**

There was one time-realm that Sif had no intention of telling anyone about, ever. She waited until she had returned to her private quarters before she permitted herself to let any of those Norn-given memories rise to the surface of recall…

  


* * *

**Reality 4**

Sif knew not what differences this Loki had from hers, what differences this Sif had from herself, nor knew what became of anyone else in this. She knew only that there was a pattern involved.  
 **~~~**

They did not always come together every day, the Loki (who here never wore a crown or helmet atop his head) and Sif of this memory-world; but when they did, there was one part which never ever varied.

It was not the nibbling of necks, the rub of teeth and lips against skin, the running of hands and fingers and palms and thumbs across every swath and inch of their bodies. Those were always varied and diverse.

They circled one another, did Loki and Sif, eyeing that they could and knowing it all of the other. Circled and said things which touched the depths and spurred the passion on ever further.

They did not always come together every day, the Sif of this memory-world and Loki; but when they did, there was one part which never ever varied:

That was how she always kept her hair pinned up as she rode him, the sunlight or starlight framing her head as he looked up at her. Sif reached up to loose the pin and let her hair down instants before they arrived at satisfaction together. It was almost clockwork. Sometimes clothed, sometimes not so much.

And this once, this time, Sif reached up to let down her hair, and pulled out a knife – moving faster than he could, and stabbing him once. Once was sufficient to end Loki.

She kissed his lips before she did anything else.

  


* * *

**Reality 1**

Sif lay there on her bed, alone.

Wondered as to what had driven the other her to slay Loki, and in such a way. _Was I assassinating a lord? Or was I, somehow, the superior one, and one day I felt his death was called for? And how long had that been going on before…before I ended it?_

Jotunheim was warmer than any of the answers Sif could think of.


	3. And her hair smells sweetly of ash   (or "what Sif told only to Loki")

**Reality 1**

"You have my attention, Sif," Loki said, unsure of why she had asked for a private conference. _Tongues will wag, but they always have._

"I saw Jotunheim," Sif said. "But this was our Jotunheim."

Loki just barely held back asking why she used the dual pronoun. "Do tell, please."

"A thousand years ago, when Jotunheim won the War, it changed. Where we stand now in time, we are there, outside the court..."

  


* * *

**Reality 7**

Even for having lived here as long as she had, Sif still drew her cloak and overcloak tighter around herself as the mountain wind shifted to impersonally strike her with a flurry of snow and an avalanche of air. "Why can't you ever do your studies indoors, Loki?" she muttered, a sound stolen by the wind before it could reach even her own ears.

She found him on a ledge overlooking a valley, the space between Loki's fingers shining with the gossamer threads of _binding_ and _vow_ , those underlying features of Jotunn magic. There were far far fewer goose bumps upon both his arms, she saw, than she knew would be on one of her hands if she had been fool enough to come out here in as few clothes as he. _Ever distinct from your brother,_ she knew. _You dress in the tunic and trousers of a magician or scholar, while Thor is typical warrior._ She herself was an exception, but that was to be expected of a _varangian_ , one who came from elsewhere. "Your father wishes to know where you are," Sif said to him.

"You may inform my father that I am hard at work, and have no desire to see the Odin of legend coming to our court," Loki said.

"Your tongue works, my prince. Why not tell that to our king yourself?"

And he faded away, wisps flying apart like the motion of the loose crust of a snowdrift.

And he was right behind her, one hand atop her wool glove. "Because," Loki answered her, inhaling the sweet scent of ash and smoke that permeated her hair.

Sif couldn't reply right away like she normally could - _was that Asgard magic he was using just now? illusion, certainly_ \- but she kept herself from leaning back against him as he had encouraged from time to time. "We both know our king will not accept 'because' as an answer, even if it is a relayed one. Perhaps he would if you delivered it in person," she said.

He chuckled, breath warm against and almost through her earmuffs. "Very well, valiant Sif the Armored," using one of the first nicknames she had received in Jotunheim. He still remembers what she told him once, when he had asked her why she would come so far away from the world of her birth for anything: 'I am not nobility like Freya, thus I know I will not be able to achieve a place as a warrior in Asgard. Here, I can rise on my own merit in the service of a king I chose to kneel before.'

They walked down the mountain path and across the chasm bridge, into the throne room. Sif hesitated a long second at the entrance to there, before she let Loki pass to his accustomed place on one side of Laufey's throne, Thor on the other side. Sif assumed the guards position, identical in limb arrangement and watchfulness as every other guard here, one at each archway entrance to the throne room; all eyes on Odin, and none harsher than hers.

_There were signs that the traditions were loosening in the century before the War, that women could take up arms without first being nobility; but defeated, Asgard wants nothing that might potentially slip them further in the hierarchy of worlds. Thus I am varangian, held in high esteem by my king and my princes._

"Greetings, prince Loki," said Odin. "I was just saying to your good king father that I have brought gifts for yourself and your brother Thor."

_More paltry tokens?_ Loki all but groaned. _Holding far too closely to the letter of the treaty by which you finalized your surrender to father's forces - almost clinging so you remain above water, are we?_

"But I do not bring merely _any_ gifts," Odin clarified. "If Baldur may approach, your majesty?"

Laufey gave a faint nod to the guard who had been keeping the Asgardian Baldur from joining Odin until now; Baldur carried a broad crate, one which Odin opened with great care.

"I recognize these," Laufey said. "You have opened your Armory today."

"I have," Odin said, taking the two contents out of the crate and holding them out before Laufey, whose face was one which clearly remembered what each could do. _Firsthand._

Sif resolutely did her best not to stare. _That may not be Gungnir, but its still a powerful spear._

"Loki!" Laufey said. "You chose first."

_No doubt this pertains in some way to my brother's recent disagreements with father over what to do in regards to Asgard - finish it off at the next provocation, as Thor suggests; or to leave things be._ Loki stepped over to where Odin stood, and examined with his eyes the two mighty weapons. _There is no contest, no debate, not in this,_ Loki knew as he lifted the hammer from Odin's grasp.

"Mjolnir, a tool for destruction as well as for building. An excellent choice, young prince," Odin said.

Figuring it was the least he could do, Loki bowed respectfully to Odin and said all the proper words of thanks, before returning to his father's side while Thor accepted the spear. For once, Loki didn't bother to listen to what the other thing could do, he was so focused upon his gift.

  


* * *

**Reality 1**

A glimmer of hope flickered in Loki, but a moment of thought quenched that light like water quenches the brightness out of a half-forged blade. _There, in the reality within that tale, Thor and I both appear to be Jotunns. It has no bearing on my situation. Or...none that I can see._

He continued to listen, as a more curious story was beginning to be spun...

  


* * *

**Reality 10**

_Something had happened at the end of the Jotunn War… Odin still brought back a baby. But instead of letting the rumor spread into belief spread that the mother of his secondborn son was a fellow warrior, he stood atop the royal stairs and held up the baby… and all saw it change to Jotunn blue._  
 **~~~**

Thor ran up to him, slapped him kindly on the shoulders, and said, “I know.”

Blue rippling across his face, “Brother?” Loki asked.

“Of you and the Lady Sif.”

“I…am afraid I don’t –“

Making a disbelieving noise, Thor then said, “It is all perfectly chaste, I am aware, brother. The looks you give one another when you think I and others are not paying attention. The little gestures and gifts you leave for one another. The subtle flattery and jokes you insert into your words when you are with her.”

“You…saw all that?”

“Of course I did. Did you not always impress upon me the value of letting others underestimate you?”

“More than I was aware of doing, it seems,” Loki said.

Thor grinned. “Now, tell me everything.”

“I can’t.”

“Can it be? My brother has gained humility? Oh what love does.”

_Get any more theatrical, brother, and father may put you in schooling for storytellers, even at this late stage._ “I cannot tell you everything because I know not everything,” Loki said.

“Then let us remedy that – come, I will speak with her father.”

_Oh **that** ’ll go over well with Sif._ He instead raised a point of equal concern: “I may be an Odinson, but that does not remove that I am –“

Thor’s face was like a stormcloud. “Those who wish to cross swords with you, my brother,” Thor said firmly, “are nothing you will face alone. I will never withdraw my support of you.”

“Thank you, brother.”

“Always!”

  


* * *

**Reality 1**

Loki listened to Sif’s relaying of what she had seen in that other could-have-been. From his seat at the throne of the conference table, Loki alone knew how much of that was truth, how much was an outcome of the change, and how much was a variable which only Odin could confirm.

Loki’s eyes glanced periodically at his arm throughout the telling, and he did not doubt that Sif noticed it – but she did not question it or draw attention to it. _Could it be so? Would Sif and I have been courting if my heritage was publically known even in part?_ He had to admit there were very appealing parts to that line of contemplation.

And then the calculating parts of his mind quashed that like an infant drø caught underfoot. _In there, my ancestral heritage is known. It is no secret I would have to reveal. And the Lady Sif tends to take umbrage at secrets._

So he said nothing, and thanked her for her time once she was done this chapter.

  


* * *


	4. Life-changing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This version of Sigyn, her career, and why she's not remarked on in 99% of all Norse myths, owes much to [From Sigyn's life](http://archiveofourown.org/works/603617)

  


* * *

**Reality 1**

As he paced - _walked_ , technically, but in his mood, _pacing_ felt more right to him - from his quarters to the throne room, Loki let his mind piece together all of what Sif had spoken of in regard to the many possibility-worlds, those nearly-weres. _Inscrutable as the Norns can be, they tend to operate according to a plan. Regretably, most times, we gods can only discern a plan - that there had been one at all - from a distance of decades or more, with mortals even further in the dark._

Few troubled themselves to attempt to find comprehensible rationality in Norn behavior, and those few regarded it more as an intellectual exercise. _But they, individually or collectively, have struck at my kingdom's heart - my compatriots, those closest to me, the nearest I have to true friends. And that is no thing I will let pass unchallenged._ Except there was a problem: _Pieces are missing,_ Loki was thinking. _What critical clues have not been relayed to us in a nearly-were?_ It hurt on an almost physical level, just like past occasions when his mind found itself in a similar bind. To know that victory was potentially at hand, but your intellect could not find _one_ detail which would make everything sensible and tackle-able.

Loki arrived at the throne room to find Sif already there, going through all the motions drilled into every combat-capable person of Asgard ( _particularly myself and Thor, when we were considered good sons and potential heirs_ ), and with such a violence in her motions that Loki wonders if Sif had gotten any sleep last night, or if she had been here all night.

He could see that she was resisting collapsing forward to her knees or backward, he'd known her long enough, after all. Her glaive slipped from her fingers, something he had never seen before, so he ran over to her. "Sif?"

Sif looked at him, and her mouth opened, but before she could even form his name, her lips were seized by a tale demanding to be told. The expression on her face told him that she emphatically did not want to be talking right now, to anyone. And yet she was. _The nornmark is acting more like an inducer of compulsions, at least today. Will it continue like this, regress to yesterday's way, or become worse?_ an uncertainty which only prodded Loki's mind to keep turning the puzzle over and around, to try fitting it together in another way... _perhaps if I consider...no...what of..._

Sif spoke more. The piece of the puzzle began with only one in her audience, but would not end in such a way.

**~~**

**Reality 3**

The Jotunns had just left, passing through to their World, when Thor turned to Heimdall and said, "Let us leave the way to Jotunheim open a while longer. In case we decide to summon them back sooner than we thought to."

"I fear that would not be wise, my king," Heimdall said.

The Warriors Three _reallly_ didn't want to see who would win a fight between Thor and Heimdall.

"Do tell," Thor said.

"If the Bifrost is left open, it is a weapon inflicting great damage upon any World it is open to," Heimdall said.

Thor chewed on that a minute, then said, "An excellent suggestion, Heimdall."

"My king -"

"Yes, I know, you did not intend it as a proposed battle tactic. Nonetheless, that is what it is - a way to demonstrate to the Worlds, and to Jotunheim specifically, that Asgard does not brook aggression against it."

"Thor -" Loki started to say.

"No, brother, we need to demonstrate our resolve, and this shall do it. The Jotunns shall learn that they cannot cross us and remain unscathed."

"You mean the dead ones?"

"I mean whomever sent them," Thor said. "If it was Laufey, then he trespassed and then lied to my face about it. If it was not Laufey, then clearly he no longer holds the power in Jotunheim anyway."

"Then why punish Laufey if he has no power?" Sif asked. Volstagg nodded.

"As a message?" Hogun asked. "To make an example of him?"

"Do Not Touch the sword, Heimdall," Thor shouted. To his friends, "A clever trick, truly, distracting me while the connection with Jotunheim is severed." _But you see - you must! - that we must carry through. If we swing as if to strike and then hold back at the last moment, that would embolden our enemies and any thinking of becoming our enemies - they would believe that Asgard does not have the stomach to do what we say we will._

"Thor!" Sif said.

"Soon," he said.

Staring out at the World from where he stood beside his sword, Heimdall said, "My king, Jotunheim is beginning to suffer."

"Count to ten," Thor said. _I did not fail geography. I know what is where in Jotunheim._

_Caverns opened up around the impact site and spreading outwards with speed. Outwards and downwards. Vales and ridges collapsed into the abyss...this was no mere deep place; this is the still-molten core and slender mantle of Jotunheim being exposed. People everywhere knew panic once more, and..._ Heimdall frowned.

Seeing that face, Thor said, "Close the passage."

  


* * *

**Reality 1**

Cooperating with her own plight - _More annoyed that it would not let me exercise if I was not alone, would not let me greet Loki as king or as friend -_ Sif was about to say what happened next, when there were thunderclaps overhead. All eyes looked to the roof, as if they could somehow see through it and to the sky and space beyond. Another pounding of thunder, this one followed a mighty crash which shook the ground and floor.

Many held their tongues and others held their breath as they then heard normal feet running from the palace entrance towards them: The guard paused at the entrance to the throne room to say, "Your pardon, your majesty. That was one of the great ravens who just landed. I've been sent to inform the Allmother."

Loki nodded and waved him along; the ravens were as much Odin's pets as they were his all-seeing eyes - spies on the other Worlds, some had accused. _With Odin unreachable, let us hope that the Allmother can get them to behave,_ picturing those thunderclaps now as the product of one raven slamming into another...they had never been the most peaceful of birds.

"What happened after King Thor ordered Heimdall to close the Bifrost?" asked a little girl in Sif's audience.

Despite how her eyes hurt and itched, Sif kept herself from rubbing them. "That tale is standing aside as gentlemen do and men sometimes do," Sif said, earning a chuckle, particularly from those who had carved a living in the demanding trade of bard and storyrelayer. "There is another..." she started to say.

"Another vision?"

And before Sif could say no or not entirely, "And what have you seen in your latest vision?" Hogun asked.

_Is this what the AllMother Frigga went through, when she began to foresee and foretell the future?_ Sif wondered. "It has made the rounds many times, the tale of when the great Tyr, a War subordinate to Odin, was given leave to take the princes to his father's estate so the young Loki and Thor could learn how to fish. Towards the end of that visit, prince Thor's hook caught onto something deep below the waters, and when a creature's back breached the surface, the line was hurriedly cut to the princes' irritation."

"It was Jormungand," said someone in the audience.

"No, it was not," Loki said from up above. "Would that it have only been Jormungand. When we were returned home immediately, the Allfather informed us that we had disturbed the slumber of Aegir himself, and our good king went to ensure the old one did not awaken," and looked at Sif, curious what that fishing trip had to do with this narrative being woven.

A fearful murmur filled the assemblage, _and rightfully so,_ Sif knew: _The Aesir are older than the Dwarves and the Humans. The Vanir are incrementally older than the Aesir. But Aegir is a thinking creature older than even the Vanir._

"My king," Sif said, "I have seen what would have happened if fear had not won out that day, and it is this..."

**~~**

**Reality 8**

Tyr's father Hymir had been the first to be eaten upon Aegir's return to wakefulness. The old one was hungry.

Aegir flooded all the Dwarven forges and furnaces as he devoured their smith-lord Svarog. The sea-god had demonstrated his power well, and was not finished.

Odin's ravens had been the first things to be eaten upon Aegir's arrival in Asgard, a display that even thought-quick speed was no defense against this power from nearer the dawn of history.

The Vanir assembled once more for war, knowing their odds and not caring. Aegir quickly finished the slow march to extinction they had begun with the end of the Aesir-Vanir War.

Sutur and Surt peered out from their molten lakes, observed what was transpiring, and retreated back into the comfortable heat. Either they were fools to think Aegir would leave them alone, or they harbored a secret they could wield against the ancient sea-god.

Their civil war having ended only a few years before, the Light Elves and the Dark Elves reunited in an orgy of preparation and collusion against this master of the water they so hated. No amount of preparation or noble-minded alliances were sufficient.

**Jotunheim:**

"I do not like it," Thor said as they sat on the stone steps of some immensely old structure dating back to the time of Thyrim or, at the least, of Nal the Commander of all Jotunn forces before Laufey had become king of Jotunheim. "We sit here, never knowing how long it will be before Aegir brings his brand of death here as well. He could raise an army or he could do it himself."

Fandral nodded; they all always sat near one another. And always well-bundled-up. "Left here, we are, to go mad wondering when the death stroke will come," Fandral said.

"Welcome to our world, Asgardian," commented a passing Jotunn, he and his fellows nearby laughing at the double meaning of the phrase.

"Well, that's one bit of good news," Volstagg said. "If a thousand years of this hasn't driven _them_ mad, then we'll be fine."

_Except how would we know?_ Thor mused; _Most of those of us who survived, we are too young to know the Jotunns from anything but stories told by our elders who fought against them in the last War or fought alongside the Jotunns in the war before that._ Noticing his brother wasn't partaking in the discussion, "Your mind is far afield, and I agree," Thor said.

"I'm quite pleased," Loki said. "And on what do we agree, so we're clear?"

"That we shall discover Aegir's weakness, and use it to strike him dead. Our deeds will be so great that they will require more than a single tale or epic to tell it. A mythic arc, perhaps, or a foundation legend." _Whether we do it before or after we reach our age of majority._

"Perhaps even a religion," Volstagg jested, "like the Primordial Cow's."

"Perhaps. Given all that Aegir has done of late, it would certainly make his defeat all the more potent." To Loki more particularly, "What do you say, brother?"

Loki said, "I say it sounds most promising." _Though in truth that was not what my mind was on, nor was it as far afield as you may think,_ he mused, his eyes watching Sif sitting defensively like she always did, ready to take down anyone who looked like might pose a danger to the lives of the last princes of Asgard. _She's willing to lay down her life to save ours...much as Tyr sacrificed his life so Aegir didn't eat Thor or I. And now the six of us are among the tattered few refugees essentially hiding on Jotunheim; we six, reduced to a single shared hearthroom with a few tiny side storage rooms - so now Thor, me, Sif, and the Warriors Three all smell of smoke and ash._

  


* * *

**Reality 1**

More shards slit themselves into what Loki had of the mystery's solution. _Closer and closer, I come._ Even if the ultimate answer continued its eluding of him. _What am I missing? How long must we wait for answers bigger than hairs? But why mention the Vanir now, in that one, and not in any of the others, any of the earlier ones? What signifigance does the faded empire hold?_

Sif considered not telling the assembled the next glimpse which came to her mind, and only telling Loki and perhaps the Warriors Three... _No, I see no reason not to share this next one. And if Loki differs, then my king can take it up with me._

And as she began to tell, Sif told herself that the pang she felt was certainly not jealousy...

**~~**

**Reality 6**

_Despite being greatly powerful in_ seiðr magic _, Odin and Frigga came to a tacit if tense agreement - to not teach Loki how to craft magic of any kind - not even seiðr._  
 **~~**

"Come _on_ , brother, we need you with us on this!" Thor said, his voice not carrying up or down the countless rows and rows full of specimens of all sorts - mineral, biological, deiological, and many others - from all the Worlds and Realms.

Loki looked up from the notes he was taking. "Why, exactly, do you need _my_ assistance in this, brother? Is it because I am the only one of your friends slender enough to pose as the Lady Sif, allowing you to offer a deceiting marriage to Brokk or whichever Dwarflord it is that you are aiming to raid the treasure stores of their forge?"

"No," Thor said, and neither of them believed _that_. In a tone that could be believed, "I want you by my side, Loki. Contrary to your opinion, you are not incompetent with something in your hands."

_Kudos for the obvious, Thor._ He had learned weaponcraft, most certainly - particularly as it was expected that a son of Odin could handle himself in battle. Staffs, halberds, spears, swords, and a dozen other forms of weaponry.

Looking back down to make sure he hadn't contradicted himself in his own note-takings, Loki told him, "You'll do fine without me, I have no doubt. Much as I appreciate your vote of confidence."

_Very well, Loki, you force my hand,_ Thor thought, and did the Asgardian equivilent of bringing out the heavy artilery. "Sif will be joining us."

Loki's head jerked up.

_And you say_ I'm _obvious about things,_ Thor thought with hidden amusement.

"Please don't tell me she and the Three are waiting this very minute in the Bifrost Observatory for you to return with me," Loki asked.

In deference to his request, Thor didn't reply.

_Of course._ "Then I am sorry. This, what I am working on right now, will take half a day, even assuming all goes well _and_ takes less reaction time than I thought."

"Surely -"

"I am nearly finished this work, Thor. If you cannot wait a day, go on without me. At worst, I will have the honor of assisting the lady Sigyn with her ongoing work."

Thor groaned. "She's looking for ice that didn't get licked up by the Primordial Cow - a fool's errand even if it weren't the deepest sort of religious parable."

"Father believes in what she is doing," Loki reminded him.

"Father humors her. And that is because there is nothing else in the Realms she is competent to do."

"Thor?"

"Yes?" Thor asked, hoping Loki had changed his mind. Again.

"Do you remember when you were suffering from that goat's bite?"

Unconsciously, Thor took his weight off that calf.

"Who do you think found the plant which provided the medicine you required to get both better and limpless?"

_Oh._ "Sigyn?"

"Sigyn."

"Then she has my appreciation," Thor said. "But that does not change the nature of her quest itself - It is a _story_ , Loki."

"Aye, it is," Loki agreed. "As has been that Hammer Mjolnir which you ogle every time we are allowed to look in the Vault. Are you sure stories should be easily discounted?"

Thor knew he would need some time to think that over - no immediate rebuttals or wedging-in arguments came to mind with which he could come to dislodge Loki from his position, or at least from this old-as-Buri place. "We will return covered in glory, and in our drinks lament that you could not join us," Thor said, trying that, since the carrot and the stick were both ineffective against his brother.

"You do that. Have fun now," Loki said, waiting til Thor actually left this time, before returning his attention to his work.

Once Loki had come to a good stopping point, "You did not have to do that, my prince," Sigyn says as she emerges from between rows of shelves filled with deiological specimens.

"It can hardly be my fault when my brother leaves so much room for so valid a comparison," Loki said.

"I mean of coming to my defense."

"That is the duty of royalty, lady Sigyn, to defend those nonpresent or unable to defend themselves."

"My thanks, my prince," she said, curtsying before him.

Loki took her hand and raised her back up. "I do not do it for thanks." _Thor just makes it so rediculously easy, sometimes._

  


* * *

**Reality 1**

Sitting not on his throne but on the royal stairs midway between throne and floor, Loki could picture it - "Heralds!" he called to him, and they moved through the crowd to the base of the royal stairs. _There are corners, entire small continents still obscured to me...but I can see enough of it, to have an idea, a plan, a strategy mutable enough to survive future tales. I hope._ "We shall be having guests in court."

"My king..." one of them started to object, unsure how to voice uncertainty to the idea of visitors coming to court when the Lady Sif was in such a state.

One look from his king quelled his objection. "My mind is made," Loki said. "Bring here the lords Laufey and - and the highest surviving lord of the Vanir." _Whomever it is. They still quarrel with one another over who should succeed long-dead Hoenir._

_I believe I have a little bit more in me,_ Sif thought, _before I need to get away from everyone...for however long it is._ The blissful nonthinkingness of exercise had worked well on her nerves...right until she noticed not being alone. "Twas the weakened and not-banished Thor..."

**~~**

**Reality 2**

Thor sat on the staircase within the Armory, looking at the Casket, looking at what it represented, and looking beyond it. _It lay at the root of what has unfolded. So much of my recent misery ties to it in one way or another._ He rose and came down the steps, crossing the length of the Armory so he stood before the Casket. _Such a small thing._

Sometimes a winter is too cold when there is no snow; sometimes a storm is too strong when it has no lightning. Thor pelted Odin with questions, mostly forms of " _Why?_ " _You are the All-Knowing. Why did you permit me to avoid my rightful punishment? Why did you allow Loki to so easily sway you? What can I do to undo this wrong?_ , and was not fully aware his father had suffered a collapse until he found himself screaming for the guards, "GUARDS! Come quickly!"

**~**

Long ago, Frigga had vowed she would always refuse to sit upon the throne without Odin at her side. And she remained true to her word, leaving the throne room for others to settle while she remained seated at Odin's side as he lay in the odinsleep.

All was silent as Thor walked out of the medical room where Odin lay, and as Thor walked heavily into the throne room, taking a seat on the royal stairs which led to the throne itself. _What have I done? In one day, I have robbed Asgard of a prince and of her king._

"All hail King Thor!" Volstagg said abruptly, and others joined him in it: "All hail King Thor! All hail King Thor!" Sif and the Warriors Three led the wave of taking a knee before their new lord.

_It is best I think, that I do not have my Hammer,_ Thor considered. _To take the throne without my powers, without Mjolnir, that would be the most fitting reminder for myself - to always remind me of my deeds,_ as he rose slowly.

His friends watched him with worry as he ascended the royal stairs and sat in the throne.

**~**  
 **On Midgard,** Loki was having little easier time as he walked several paces one way, then tried the other way.

Carrying a cup of coffee in each hand, Jane came outside and, after watching him a minute never taking his eyes off her car as he paced back and forth, asked him "Do you think its eyes are following you?" 

"I see no eyes," Loki said. "Merely I am unfamiliar with this form of construction."

"Its a car," Jane said.

"A violent one."

"Look, I said we were sorry that we hit you. And I'm sorry you somehow fell out of the car when we were taking you to the hospital. Yes, we should have been more careful with what was going on, with the whole giant dust devil and streams of aurora-light and everything else, but it isn't like we did it deliberately."

"I did," Loki said quietly. 

"And - I'm sorry, what?" Jane asked.

Catching himself, Loki asked her, "Was there something you wanted?" 

"Yeah, coffee," and handed him a cup. As he sipped it, Jane said, "Careful, its -" 

Loki downed the cupful into his throat, then handed her the cup. _No doubt they lack the abundance of mugs we enjoyed in Asgard._

"- hot," Jane finished. "Did you want more?" she asked, staring at him just a teensy bit. 

"Assuming any remains, yes," Loki said. "That was why I handed it to you."

"Huh." She started to head back inside, but paused and turned back towards him. "I'm afraid we don't have any clothes your size," Jane said. 

"Is that so?" he asked, walking once more, but this time making a wide orbit around Jane until he was back where he had started. 

"I'm not a piece of meat," Jane told him. 

"Did I say so?" 

"Then what was that?" 

"What?"

" _That_...the walking thing you just did."

"For this," Loki said and used his _seiðr magic_ to shift and curl and thread and fold his present clothes into a near-mirror match for what Jane was wearing ('near' for it was a mens shirt and pants), Loki's fitting him as well as Jane's fit her. And, having done that, Loki could feel every impact point of recently, from the car against him, from him reflexively _seiðr_ -ing out of the car and onto the hard ground at while the car had been going at speed. _Father did warn me, said I would be weaker._

Jane was speechless for a few seconds, but then called for, "Darcy? Erik?"

"Yeah?" Darcy asked, coming outside, followed by Erik. "What's up?" she asked Jane when they were standing by her.

"Do that again," Jane asked Loki.

"What praytell am I supposed to be doing again? Circling you?" Loki asked, not about to confess that he was drained and unable to cast seiðr for...he wasn't yet sure. 

"Jane?" Erik asked.

"His clothes. Look at them."

"Looking," Darcy said.

"We don't have anything his size - so where'd they come from?" Jane said.

"Maybe he had them on under the other outfit? I don't know."

"Then where's the other set of clothes?"

"You mentioned yesterday that your name is Loki," Erik said.

Said individual just looked at Erik, waiting for there to be a point somewhere.

"Loki?" Erik asked. "That's a very unusual name."

"Yes, I always thought so," Loki replied.


	5. What she did say, and what she never would.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "My loyalty is to Asgard" was Sif's credo in most realities.

**Reality 4**

 _Gladsheim is mine. And from here, I shall defend Asgard as she has deserved to be defended; none of the half-measures my predecessors employed_ , Sif thought as she stood on the balcony looking out over part of the city - _MY city_ \- and the Rim Sea which surrounded Asgard.

"The army is prepared, my Queen," Hod said, standing by the main room's door. Blindness was not the reason he dared not enter further.

 _We were friends in our youth. And while he is my strongest partisan, Hod is also a danger to me. A pity,_ Sif mused as she ran one hand along her balcony railing. Though the noise bothered her ears, Sif did not call down for the training sands and marching fields to be quieter or silent, not on the cusp of their use, certainly.

Even without two of the Realm's more dashing and accomplished fighters.

 _I shall almost miss them. I could miss them more, could I be sure neither would get underfoot as I lead Asgard to her great future,_ Sif thought, sparing a thought for her late husbands.

Loki had, like Thor before him, been given a state funeral - one befitting a soldier in Asgard's forces, not with the pomp and ceremony due a member of royalty. 'He wished for a send-off in accordance to how he strove to live - as one among the many shedding blood to defend his home,' Sif had said, varying the choice of particular words. _And for all their differences and feuds, their feelings toward their home was the same._

**~~**

**Reality 1**

Sif caught her breath beside the training sands, her nornmark throbbing nearly as much as her headache.

 _My mother wanted me to learn magic. My aunts wanted me to be a traditionalist of one stripe or another. My father wanted me to be a soldier._ And she tried to picture what could have made her want to aim for the throne in such a way as what she had just beheld.

"Good knight Sif."

She'd heard the speaker's feet approach. And few addressed her by her military rank, a number which included Loki in certain moods. But she'd just heard that voice in the glimpse. "Good Hod," Sif said.

"Our king wishes your presence and advice," Hod said.

Surprised and grateful that she hadn't started storytelling when Hod had come by, Sif said, "Thank you."

Hod waited.

"I'm going," Sif said, getting up and starting on her way to the Bifrost.

**~**

"You wished to see me, my king?" Sif asked when she caught up with Loki.

"I do," Loki said. "Please, walk with me."

Sif did.

"Do you disapprove?" Loki asked her after several minutes of quiet between them.

"I do not follow, my king."

"Of my idea."

"To confer on a matter with the lords of Jotunheim and Vanaheim?" Sif asked. _The two worlds which Asgard has the bloodiest history with. First the Vanir warred with us, then the Jotunns did._

"Precisely."

"Your booklearning would have you know better than I, Loki," Sif said.

"You were always better at tactics than I," Loki said with more than the dribs of honesty he would have used had he been saying that to anyone else.

"I do not like it," she said. "Neither has at heart the best interests of yourself or of Asgard."

"Don't bite your lip or hold your tongue, and yes I saw and heard you do that, the moment after you said 'Asgard'," Loki said. "What else were you going to say, but quailed to?"

"I did not fear to say anything," Sif retorted.

"Then what was it?"

"That the people of Asgard may not all drink to your name and health every night, and some may drink to Thor's instead - but _you need know that every_ man and woman in Asgard would prefer you on the throne and not Laufey taking the throne... and that they would prefer Laufey over any Vanir." _For all the horror tales told, the war stories and the countless rumors in every corner, the Jotunn are still seen as less worrisome, less threatening than the Vanir. Always have been._

"A comfort, assuredly," Loki said, and when Sif looked, he seemed slightly more relaxed, a bit closer to being at ease.

And she began to think of a possibility where the ancient enemies were not what one worried about.

**Reality 9**  
 _It was a ways into the future, and yet it had all gone wrong. Once more, a reality wherein Thor was king of Asgard, but this time had come to the throne by succeeding Loki..._  
 **~~**

"Can you tell us, high king, what became of Loki the once king, when you defeated him on the Bifrost Bridge?" asked one child.

"It begins in our battle," Thor answered carefully. "Loki began to multiply images of himself all around me...and he then smiled with an idea, and drew them all into himself. As I was ready for whatever he would send at me, he unleashed a bolt of magic at me, which I deflected with Mjolnir." Thor sighed wearily, sadly. The throne had a heavy weight, for all that he sat upon it and not the other way around. "Mjolnir affected the bolt, changed it. When the bolt bounced back, striking Loki, he collapsed upon the Bifrost Bridge." _And the two magics - his bolt and my Hammer - formed a binding which imprisoned my brother's mind deep within his body. He needs to be fed and exercised. He can no longer speak, only make the rare sound. He recognizes nobody._

Thor didn't say the last part...those who needed to know or already knew, knew; those others, would not know Loki's fate. "Loki the Once King has been punished for his deed." _And I invoked a law previously used only with exiles - when one is exiled, none in Asgard or the other Worlds and Realms may speak ill of the exiled one. And that is what I have had done for Loki._

The king spared a concerned glance over to Sif the Implacable, his right hand and the foremost War of Asgard. _And for all that Hogun can come close to being as silent as legendary Hoenir, Sif outdoes them both. Her will is still strong, as is her bravery and sense of duty, a mind still clear and sharper than even a Dwarven-forged blade. But something within her had caved in when Loki's fate was written, collapsed within and thinks she never shows it. Sif's loyalty is unreservedly to Asgard, but as I have myself learned, there is more to the heart than loyalty._


	6. Chapter 6

**Reality 3**

Thor walked away from the Bifrost Observatory and returned to the palace where he took up his place on his throne once more.

Every time he tried to look at the spot on the stairs where he would always stand when Odin was sitting upon the throne, Thor's eyes fell upon Loki's place on the stairs. _I cannot put it off any longer: I must decide what to do."_ For seeing that place, only served to remind Thor of how much Loki had been questioning of late. Fandral's own questions could be dismissed as jests, particularly with how they were asked. But Loki...

"I do not wish to kill Loki," Thor whispered to himself as he began to spin Mjolnir slowly, one finger moving at a time around the grip.

_It has always been Loki's nature to poke and to prod. But this is no time for it._ Thor took a breath, reversed the direction of spin for Mjolnir. _Perhaps this is why we have no uncles, why Vili and Ve are not with us, why father has no uncles. All brothers of a king meet death once their brother is on the throne. Perhaps because it strikes us harder when our benevolent intent is questioned by those closest to us._

"We could break with tradition and be something new - a brother who knows his brother is loyal. A new tradition for the House of Odin, one which may echo through eternity." Except that brought questions of its own: _But then what to do with him? Even if his opposition remains as it always had, light and pointed, he would be a rallying point to any enemies I make within Asgard - and is that symbol which he would be, greater than my loyalty him as brother and lord?_

"There are always choices," Thor knew, quiet as he was. _Banishment, sending my brother away to some other world, not to return until I or my heir bids him welcome return; never to see any of us in his time away. Exile, making him leave and never return; others may go with him. Outlaw, removing all penalties from the path of any who would wish to kill him wherever he may be._ "I would not do that one," Thor resolved, though that left too many other options. _Imprisonment? Locking him away with those who have sinned against Asgard in a way which brought them to spend the rest of time in cages and secure?_ "No."

It was no easy thing, deciding. _Heavy is the head that wears the crown. That is clear to me._

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**REALITY 1**

Sif took up a position behind Loki, as much attentive as ready to go on the defensive as observing. And, watching, was alert as first Laufey arrived, followed shortly after by Kvasir of the Vanir stepping onto the Bifrost bridge.

“Welcome,” Loki said to them.

“Asgard is unchanged,” Kvasir said in a way that made Sif wonder if that was considered a good or ill thing in the eyes of Vanaheim.

“In this, we agree,” Laufey said. “Little different was it, when I was last here.”

_Ah yes. Then._ “I thank you both for coming,” Loki said.

“Be more specific than your missive, boy-king,” Kvasir warned him. “I nearly did not come, and others will not come if I opt to leave.”

“Oh I think you’ll like what I have to offer the two of you.”

"Why should I agree to anything you offer?" Laufey asked.

"Because I know what you want," Loki said.

"You have nothing I want. Nor can you offer anything I want."

"I am king of Asgard - I can offer quite a lot."

"Such as?" Kvasir asked.

"Assisting Jotunheim in the rebuilding of a means to cross from world to world - either a Bifrost of your own, or reconstructing the device you used before the War destroyed it. Our successors can hammer out the details of how and where to return a Jotunn base to Niflheim," Loki said. _We won that Realm from you in the last War; and while we will not relinquish it, there is little harm in permitting you a foothold under our gaze._

This seemed to strike Laufey as satisfactory, for he said "Continue."

But before Loki could... "You can buy off the Jotunns with star bridges and the like," said Kvasir. "My kind are no longer of a mind to spread. What do you, Asgard, offer _us_?"

"Greater autonomy," Loki said, extending a palmful of metaphorical sugar to the Vanir. "And the remains of your last king."

"His remains were destroyed by your predecessors."

"Then you believed what was reported," Loki said. "Do you want what is left of Hoenir or not? Or do you need to confer with your people?"

"On this, all of Vanaheim speaks with one voice - we will listen to what Asgard wants in return for the king."

Addressing Laufey as much as Kvasir, Loki said, "There is a world which had often been much in dispute between our three peoples, you know its name as well as I do."

Laufey and Kvasir both gave a nod.

"When my brother Thor returns from his banishment, let all of us send to this world a new lord to rule over it."

"Who do you propose we three could agree upon?" Laufey asked, only just half a challenge to his question.

Loki gave a knowing smile. "Now now, Lord Laufey, surely it is only sensible to name names and propose canidates _after_ the idea itself is approved."

"This is true." Laufey smiled. "You have my agreement, for there can be none that would be agreeable to all of us."

"I share Jotunheim's lord's doubts," Kvasir said. "Is there a penalty for if none can be found who is suitable for our purpose?"

"There shall be, naturally," Loki said. "If we three cannot come to an agreement over this, then we should all step down from our place of authority." Seeing the looks he was getting, "Or I should, at least, as this was my idea." Loki smiled. "Is that to your likings?"

"Yes," Kvasir said.

"It is," Laufey said.

"Then let us begin the hourglass, good lords," Loki said. "If we have not reached consensus by the time my brother returns, I shall abide by our agreement, and depose myself."

"In favor of another," Laufey specified.

_I knew one of you would catch that,_ Loki thought as he and Sif stepped around them to come inside of the Bifrost Observatory. "Retrieve Thor," he asked of her, and whispered in her ear, his warm breath telling-tickling her where to find the Hammer Mjolnir.

Sif drew her head back once he'd done. "Surely you cannot mean..." and wasn't sure if she meant it a question or an emphatic.

"My reign will have been a short one, but think of what my accomplishment will have been," Loki said. _Besides countermanding Odin's decree of banishment._

"A lasting peace with Jotunheim and Vanaheim, one which satisfies everyone," Sif said, then weighed what Loki had asked her. "Your reign will - you mean to stall the negotiations until your brother Thor returns? But that will mean..."

"Dragging things out is not a favored tactic of mine, but I am familiar enough with how to do it without drawing attention," Loki assured her.

"But why? I've no doubt Thor will -"

Loki considered placing a hand on her shoulder or arm, but discounted that as being misinterpreted-able as manipulative. "Do you trust me?" he asked her.

"Yes," Sif answered without hesitation.

"Then bring back Thor."

Sif tried to hide her frown as she bowed before Loki for what she suspected would be the last time, and she passed down the pathway to Midgard.

Loki watched the now-empty space where Sif had been, before turning his attention to Heimdall. "Thank you," Loki told him. "When Sif finds Thor, transport them both to a position beside Mjolnir. No sense in being lengthy for its own sake, now is there?"

Heimdall smiled. "No, my king."

"Good," and Loki walked back to Laufey and Kvasir. "Now, let us begin," Loki said to them.


	7. Chapter 7

**REALITY 1**

 _'You are no longer banished, it is lifted away' may be among the most precious words I have heard,_ Thor felt as he passed through the Bifrost passage. There had been a long few minutes of awkwardness between Jane and Darcy and Sif, before Thor told his newfound love "I shall return, or I shall send for you," and went with Sif to Mjolnir - or rather, as it turned out, to be transported to Mjolnir - and then back to the Bifrost Observatory.

 _My Hammer._

Thor had barely stepped out of the Bifrost Observatory, when he stopped in his tracks, seeing someone who belonged here less than he himself did: _Laufey. Here. In Asgard._

"Come," Sif asked of him quietly, nudging him forward to get him moving again.

"What is happening?" Thor asked her.

"You will be king," and she left it at that, both because they were walking by the visiting lords, and... _and there is no way to summarize everything so you can know it before Loki draws you into the conversation._

"Welcome home, Thor," Loki said. To the dignitaries, "I am many things, but I keep my word." To them and to Thor, Loki said "I step down as king of Asgard, returning it to the rightful heir of Odin Allfather, Thor. Do you accept this, Thor?"

Certain Loki had an aim buried in all of this, but unsure what it was, Thor said "I accept, Loki."

"Good. Good, my king." To all three, "If I, a humble petitioner, may present one final name for consideration..." and when there was no objection, only a trace of amusement on Kvasir's face, "my own name - Loki."

"You cannot," Kvasir objected.

"Why is that?" Loki asked. "I offered myself only when I was not a king."

"You are still an Asgardian. It is your lot whom possess the greater power in the bargain already."

That old smile came back to Loki. "Am I now? One does not need be a trickster to trick others," and reached out to strike Laufey -

\- and Laufey caught Loki's wrist with one hand. And even Laufey's eyes went wide at the sight of what happened next. "What trickery is this?" he demanded.

"No trickery," Loki said as his arm became blue and ridged. "Except perhaps on the part of Odin himself. Do you withdraw from the agreement, father?"

Laufey let go of him, but did not back down. "No. Jotunheim shall watch your progress with interest, little one."

A snort from Kvasir, who said "A spectacle for amusement, if nothing else. Very well, Vanaheim shall keep to its portion of the agreement. Where are the remains of Hoenir the Silent?"

"Why do you think I wanted to be lord of that world?" Loki asked. "So I could recover them personally and see to their safe delivery into your hands."

Kvasir knew there would be an inevitable surprise - _this Loki may be a Frost Giant by blood, but he has fed on the milk of deceit and trickery upon which all Asgardians nurse. But it does not matter - for now. Our victory will come._

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**POST-CREDITS SCENE:**  
 **REALITY 1**  
 **FORMERLY DISPUTED PLANET**  
Several lights flickered overhead and in the wall sconces, despite not actually being flames.

Accepting that small fault while it lasted, Loki reclined in what passed for a throne in this part of the planet, looking out over the prosperous expanse. "Mine," he said with more pride than he had felt in a long while.

There were a few things left to do, some business left to tidy before it was all in hand. But not much. Its location a near-certainty, the recovery of all of what was left of ancient Hoenir was nearly about to occur, and that was the nearest thing to a problem left facing Loki. _So much of this, here, brought about only after I deposed myself._

"It worked?"

Loki swiveled his chair around and looked at Fury. "Of course it worked. You really are too doubting for words."

"Its served to keep me alive this long," Nick said.

"And the Council?"

"Are suddenly finding themselves just redundant enough to be bypassed, but not so redundant that they'll be making themselves a security risk."

"Then all is well," Loki said. _So good that we came to an understanding, Fury; you would be a_ terrible _opponent. Better to let you work your terror against others._

"Yeah, about that, there are a few things we still need to discuss," Fury said.

"I am a god, Fury," his voice playing with the irony of that surname in that phrase. "HYDRA will not be a problem." _You and I may have only begun working together quite recently by even your time scale - but do not assume that makes me capable of little, Fury._

"Good. And the Avengers?"

"Things happen," Loki said. "I have no doubt a reason can be found for their cooperation." _Odin had the Einherjar. The Avengers may become the sharp tip of my new SHIELD spear, my elite unit._

Fury nodded. "Glad to hear it," and turned to take a few steps toward the door of Loki's office, when he stopped and looked back at the new boss of the planet. "And by the way, you've got a visitor."

"I do so love guests."

"Send her in," Fury said over his earwig, and waited, wanting to see what reaction, if any, this guest would have on Loki.

Sif came in the door. "This is your throne room?" she asked, not impressed.

"At the moment. The lighting acts up from time to time." Greeting her, "Always a pleasure," Loki said. "Recovered?"

"Fully," Sif said, meaning to speak to him on the details later.

More than glad to hear that, "What may I do for you?"

"King Thor of Asgard asked for volunteers willing to serve as your personal guard," Sif said, a knowing smile on her face. "Jotunheim and Vanaheim see it as part of the agreement, so they're each going to send you a guardsman by the end of the week as well."

"You always were first, Sif, and remain so," Loki said, replying to her smile with one of his own. Not bothering to look away from her, Loki asked, "Was there something else, _Agent_ Fury?"

"Nope. Just wanted to be sure you were okay before I grabbed some lunch," Fury said.

"As you can see, I am in capable hands. So while I appreciate your concern, I know there are better things to preoccupy your thoughts and actions with." And just in case he hadn't been perfectly clear enough to leave Fury no wiggle room - something Loki himself was a master at finding in otherwise clear statements - Loki said "Dismissed."


End file.
